Clift and Cohn: Ultimate check and balance is the electorate

Wednesday

Jan 28, 2009 at 12:01 AM

WASHINGTON — We usually think of our check-and-balance system as the interaction between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, but the ultimate check is exercised by the electorate.

ELEANOR CLIFT AND DOUGLAS COHN

WASHINGTON — We usually think of our check-and-balance system as the interaction between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, but the ultimate check is exercised by the electorate.

For most Americans, watching President Bush exit the White House brought a sense of relief that an administration that took us into an unnecessary war and left us with a crumbling economy is finally over.

President Barack Obama underscored the change of government in his first days in office with a flurry of announcements and executive orders to order the closing of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo within a year, lift much of the veil of secrecy that marked the previous administration, and rein in his own staff from cashing in on their public service.

Taken together, it was Obama's way of signaling this is a new day in Washington. Despite his rhetoric about there being only one president at a time, Obama has been more involved in governing during the transition than any incoming president in memory. And Bush has been extraordinarily gracious, bringing Obama in on all major decisions and opening up the government to transition teams that could examine all pending decisions and enable Obama to begin to reverse Bush's policies from the moment he was sworn in.

Bush deserves credit for how he has handled himself during this interim period, but his behavior has not been entirely altruistic. He is a politician after all, and he understands that his approval rating of below 30 percent destroyed his credibility to take the necessary steps to buttress the economy. He needed Obama to step in and endorse the actions he was taking, which Obama did, taking ownership of the faltering economy weeks before he had to. Obama did what he had to do with a minimum of drama, which is his style and it engenders confidence in a way that is reassuring to the millions of Americans who placed their trust in him as their next president.

Some of the changes Obama is expected to make, like lifting federal restrictions on stem-cell research, are no longer controversial in the same way they were during the Bush administration. The religious right is greatly diminished in its influence even if Obama did award Rick Warren, pastor of the evangelical Saddleback Church in southern California, the honor of offering the invocation at Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony. Such mainstays of the Republican Party as former first Lldy Nancy Reagan support stem cell research, and polls show strong majorities in favor of federally backed research.

Obama's early actions indicate his determination to keep his campaign promises. Closing Guantanamo won't be easy. He'll have to figure out how to give the remaining detainees a fair trial without compromising national security, and decide which of them can be returned to their home countries, or other countries willing to accept them. Prospective attorney general Eric Holder's declaration during his confirmation hearing that water boarding is torture cleared up any confusion about where Obama stands on that issue. But it also opened up another pressure point, and that is, if water boarding is torture, and we know the Bush administration sanctioned it, shouldn't those who ordered and/or engaged in the practice be held accountable?

Obama's inclination is to move on and not criminalize actions taken by the Bush administration even if fair-minded people can point to clear violations of the rule of law and the Constitution. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill the first week the new Congress convened to create a commission to investigate Bush's torture and wiretapping policies. Much as Obama might want to wish away the issue, Democratic activists will keep pushing to prosecute those they believe abused their power. Issuing these early executive orders won't please the most ardent critics of the Bush era but Obama is unlikely to go further. His election represents a changing of the guard, the ultimate check and balance, a farewell to the past that in our Democratic system is at least the equal of any special prosecutor.

Distributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.

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